The Fade
by Sophiacharlotte
Summary: "He called to her, the man in the forest." Caryl (AU) no zombies, Carol is wood nymph. Daryl is a hunter. Angsty. Caryl Fluff. Oneshot but will continue if interest :)


AN: so not sure what this is, me just messing around lol. Let me know what you think? If you like I will continue :)

I do not own or profit from The Walking Dead

Xxxxxxxxx

He called to her, the man in the forest.

His pain reached out and enveloped Carol, as though it was a resounding scream, one that she was no longer able to ignore.

She'd watched him, for many seasons. Through the fade. He was a child of the forest she had come to realize perhaps that was why. Perhaps that was why his pain called to her.

She'd watched him through the seasons. The forest calmed his soul, he felt at peace. But the pain, the pain was always there, a suffocating presence below the surface, a bubbling cauldron that was as deep as infinity.

fHis pain echoed her own, she'd lost so much during the Unseelie war. Her mother the Sophia, the goddess of the flight. Her twin sister Noelle.

Her mother had been fascinated by humans. Especially the winter solstice. Naming her twin nymphs for the human holiday that shared their birth.

Noelle had been peaceful, loving, calm. She had teased Carol relentlessly for her seeming obsession with this human. The way even as a child, Carol had watched over him, sending danger away from him, steering him towards prey, when his hunger pangs grew to much Carol (an empath) to bear. He'd always called to her, a magical force reaching out, pulling her to him, when he came home. To the forest.

As a young nymph, she had ached to break through the fade to provide comfort to him as a boy. He never knew of her presence, as she sat beside him one day, attempting to give some comfort to his aching back. Wishing she could avenge, the monster that would inflict such pain on a child. A child herself, she'd never known unkindness or evil. Not until the war.

It had not been safe, during the war to be alone. Her mother had called Carol back to the court. She had pinned those seasons for him, worried about his safety, alone, in her forest.

The Unseelies had come, and taken her mother's greatest possessions hostage. Herself and Noelle.

The twins had endured unbelievable tortures, Noelle, had faded, her light becoming faint, distant, it grew dim.

The night Noelle had died in her arms in the dungeon Carol had felt a power coursing through her greater than any she'd ever known. A wave of energy had emitted from her soul. Her pain at having lost a part of herself echoing across the Unseelie Kingdom as she had freed herself and taken down anyone in her wake. Revenge had consumed her.

She made her way home to find her mother had perished in battle and her anger grew. More power seemed to grow within her. In one spectacular battle she had changed the course of the war, and isolated herself even further. She was scared of her new power, scared of what she was capable of to defend those she loved; and they were scared of her.

She went back to her forest, the time, the isolation the peace healed her, as one again, she watched her Hunter. The man had grown just like her during the seasons she was gone.

He grew to be a hunter. Not for sport, that she could not abide, but for sustenance. She admired his abilities, like a great cat, stalking his prey.

His was beautiful, but such sadness. Her heart aches for how he suffered. Sometimes in the past, he would come to the forest with his brother, but she had not seen his brother since her return. He was alone. So, even though he did not know, that she was with him; in her forest, he was never alone.

She could not understand, why he did not stay, in the forest. This was where he belonged Carol thought as she had watched through the fade, as he shed his garments by the lake. She could sense his discomfort at being naked, even though he thought himself alone. He was truly beautiful to her, she watched as he walked into the water, his back marked from the pain he'd endured. A picture of grace he swam through the water, coming to a large boulder to the side, pas his fingers had traced a carving that she had watched him and his brother place in the rock so many seasons ago.

M. Dixon was here. D. Dixon was here.

The boys had giggled with the silliness of such a carving that day as they swam, joy had cursed through them and Carol had been so happy to feel it.

Now his head, hung, as his fingers traced the M. Dixon reverently. His shoulders suddenly shaking as sobs wracked his body.

She could no longer bare to witness this. Rising she went to him, unable to feel the water through the fade she entered the water, her feet padding softly towards him, his shoulder still shaking.

Fingertips reaching out through the fade, she called on all her newfound power to reach out within her, to give him what he needed to show him he was not alone.

Her hand on his back, the raised scars tearing at her soul she whispered "You are not alone Daryl"

Suddenly a light so bright filled her, and she could feel the water lapping around her legs, the heat of the sun shinning down on her, the woodsy scent of the man in front of her, as he turned and gasped, staring straight at her.

She had stepped through the fade, she realized in shock, then smiled at him tenderly. He was not afraid, somehow he knew her. Her hand raised to his cheek feeling the warmth of his skin.

"You're not alone Daryl"


End file.
